I keep meaning to post, and then being too boring as a person to manage it (yes, yes, I know, how is this different from usual...). But if I don't post, then it starts being A Thing, and then the next thing I know it's been months and maybe I'll just have to fake my own death and move to another country, but that just sounds like so much work.

Anyway.

We upgraded the main system I look after yesterday, which was moderately nervewracking (not least because For Reasons (me. me and my terrible terrible inability to do the testing. I am the reason) we were something like five major versions behind. Actually it's all gone very smoothly; one real issue that was fixed within about half an hour, one minor bug I spotted in live that would have been incredibly annoying except that three of the changes in the new version mean I shouldn't have to actually use the screen with the non-working navigation, and no more than six people reporting "issues" which were actually them not having cleared their cache as per the instructions I emailed everyone on Monday. And in fairness, all of them had cleared their caches, they just hadn't set the time-range correctly, so they were trying. Repetitive, but extremely easy to fix.

I did have to stay up until nearly midnight to test the upgrade once it was done, to make sure nothing was horrifyingly broken, but the plan anticipated us having to do it after midnight, so it could have been much worse. I reset my morning alarm and did the whole day camera-off so no one could see my hair and/or lack of shower, so I should have had sufficient sleep, but my body doesn't believe it.

And now it starts all over again, because Boss Lady wants us back on the "upgrade twice a year" cycle we initially said we wanted to do. Plus we decided to separate the new bespoke work elements out, and those need testing and upgrading this year so I can start on the new version for a spring upgrade. I both hate testing and am, so I am told, very good at it; the perennial struggle.

I think I might be a little bit cursed today. This morning I walked down from Mum's house to the corner shop to get her newspaper, and my left boot completely untied itself twice in less than ten minutes, with no previous signs of loosening or jolt from me treading on a lace-end. Then when I got there at 08:55 it was closed, even though the website said it opened at 08:00 on Sunday. Fortunately someone arrived to open up at 09:03 so I did at least get the paper, and made it home without any more mysterious knot failures.

Then my phone developed a number of interesting alternative responses to me trying to scroll webpages - scrolling part of the distance I asked for, then jolting back up most of the way to the starting point; zooming in; moving sideways; really anything and everything except just, you know, scrolling. It's been behaving slightly more reasonably this afternoon, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'm not going to have to replace it...

On the other hand, my family apparently enjoyed me being in more-or-less the same timezone as everyone else on the crossword call, rather than lagging three seconds behind like I do at home, so it's not all bad. And I've set up my work laptop with a second monitor and a mouse and keyboard (although the mouse wheel is weirdly and upsettingly... sticky... enough to leave my finger sticky afterwards!).

One day down, four to go until Dad's back, and then I can go home! It's amazing how much longer Sunday is when I don't have any computer games to play. And my parents are very nice and their house is fine, but it's just not the same. I've been living alone too long.